This invention is a portable, temporary, roadway barrier for placement at highway construction sites or such other areas in need of temporary redirection of vehicular traffic.
Temporary road barriers have been commonly used at highway construction sites for the purpose of directing and controlling automotive traffic during construction, which barriers are removed when construction is completed. These road barriers are separate and distinct from permanent type barriers such as formed metal guard rails, poured-in-place concrete median barriers and traffic attenuators used proximate bridge abutments, all of which barriers are permanently affixed as an integral part of the highway.
The temporary road barriers are commonly placed along the edges of the highway during road construction and are intended to visually direct, and, if struck, physically redirect the striking vehicle back onto the highway, and prevent the vehicle from entering the construction area. These barriers are conventionally made from timbers, each of which comprises a 10 by 10 inch square log base member which is usually 8 to 10 feet long. A barricade is mounted on the base member and comprises spaced 4 by 4 inch upright posts which support three spaced 2 by 6 inch horizontal rails. Such barriers have proven ineffective in use and, in many instances, very dangerous, causing damage to a striking vehicle and inflicting injury on occupants in the vehicle and construction workers along the side of the roadway.
It has been found that vehicles striking these barriers tend to vault the base member and demolish the barricade, the vehicle becoming impaled on the parts of the barricade or crashing through the same with resultant injury or death to those in the area. In addition, the undercarriages of the vehicle have been seriously damaged in many instances.
The wooden barrier not only fails in its intended purpose but, due to its tremendous mass and bulk, is extremely difficult to move, and cannot be manhandled. Therefore, heavy equipment is required to relocate or align such barriers.
As a result of the above problems, the U.S. Government, through the Department of Transportation, issued an order on Feb. 2, 1977 prohibiting the use of timber barricades on direct Federal or Federal-aid projects.